It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

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Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Gina Miller's statement to the Omaha Public Schools board

OPS ATTENDANCE WORKSHOP

OPENING
STATEMENT

GINA MILLER

9/9/2013

My name is Gina Miller. I am a parent of two Omaha Public
School children, a fifth grader and an eighth grader.

Since you invited me to attend, I have been trying to write
an “opening statement.”I have been struggling
to have something succinct and meaningful so you “the District board”
understand our, “the parents” issues, frustrations, anger about the attendance
law, the district policy and the implementation of said law and policy.I have written dozens of drafts.

I was talking to a good friend of mine about my
struggle.She heard me out, and then in
a calm voice, and with much clarity, said “Gina, tell them you are afraid of
them!”

That is it!This law,
and the way the districts across this state have been implementing this law,
have made families and children afraid of their school system, the one place my
child should feel the safest and the people I should be partnering with, not
against.This law, the district policy,
and how it is applied have made us enemies, parents and children against all of
you and those you represent.

Our family and my child live in fear daily that she is going
to be turned over to law enforcement because she is sick?How is that right?

I have a child with a chronic illness.I call her into school each time she is sick.
I check with her teachers to see if there is anything she needs to make up, she
has good grades, my husband and I are active engaged parents.Why then does my child need to be asked by
school officials at her locker, in the hall, in front of her friends, if she
knows how many days she has missed?Why
does she get comments from school officials along the lines of “I heard you
were sick yesterday, you look fine today. Did you go to the doctor?”They KNOW she was sick, I CALLED HER IN!

Why do I receive threatening letters and calls from SPA’s
asking me why my child has “excessive absences”?Have they even talked to my child’s school or
her teachers?They all know why she is
missing school. Why am I once again, explaining to a stranger, that a chronic
illness plagues my daughter.

My child can not control her illness.We have spent thousands of dollars and have
seen a dozen specialists about her illness.There is no cure at this point.What I need is a school that is supportive of her illness and how they
can support my child’s education so she doesn’t get behind.Not
why was she gone, and does she have documentation to prove it, because we the
system don’t believe you, the parent.I
have never once been asked if there is anything the school can do to assist
with the information she has missed.

I work daily to keep my children out of the law enforcement
realm…. We preach don’t drink and drive, don’t do drugs, be good..but my school
system is telling her that if she is sick and misses school she will be sent to
juvenile justice?That seems to be the
ultimate contradiction that no parent's mind, let alone a child’s mind, can get
around.

I understand that you deal with a lot of challenging family
situations.I know there are serious
problems in our community that keeps kids from attending school regularly.What we are asking of you is to get out of the
game of mistrust and finger pointing and get back to the game of education, get back to
engaging with our students so they WANT to come to school, support our
students that have difficult home situations, NOT INTIMIDATE them under threat
of law to come to school.

The school policy should have EXCUSED absences written into
the policy. Illness, funerals, religious observances, college planning trips, parents
on military leave, family vacations, children with once in a life time
opportunities (educational opportunities, dancing in the Macy’s day parade,
etc..)..should be considered EXCUSED and not count against their total days
absent.

I have taken off work the last year to battle this
problem.I have made a sincere effort to
understand all sides of this issue.I and
many of the people in this room have met with county attorneys,
legislators, school boards, superintendents, doctors, parents.I am
a member of the Attendance Coalition to build programs that can assist kids who
have barriers to coming to school, and build partnerships for the myriad of
services this community already has to offer children.

At the end of the day, I keep coming back to what are we
trying to accomplish with an attendance policy?It should be to balance the rights of parents and children and at the same time provide quality education for
our kids.For the life of me, I can not
understand how involving law enforcement can assist in that endeavor. Even the Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice
said in an Omaha World-Herald article that courts are the “most expensive and least flexible”
way to deal with truancy.He said courts
should be reserved for the most difficult and unresponsive TRUANTS, while
others should be handled through school interventions.

This afternoon we are ready to discuss the history of the
law, the details of the policy, the hundreds of thousands
of dollars that have been poured into the district to create an entire industry
to implement and monitor attendance. You will hear from families that have been
referred to law enforcement and their lives and their children’s lives forever
changed.

We are asking you to revise OPS attendance policy so good
kids and families are never referred to law enforcement.We are asking that you implement a policy
similar to Gretna’s
or Millard’s, which I have included for your review..Their policy respects families and parental
authority while still providing consequences for kids who are TRUANT (absent
without excuse).

The abuse, intimidation and fear needs to stop. My hope is
that you will understand our concerns and that we can come together as parents,
educators and administrators and agree upon a common sense, child/ parent
focused policy that takes into consideration the life events that happen daily
to our kids.

Thank you for your service, for organizing this workshop and
for listening to our concerns.

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The Personal Impact of Nebraska's School Attendance Law

We began collecting stories in April of 2011 and will continue to collect them as long as the law is abused. The stories we have collected demonstrate how our community has been impacted by Nebraska's school attendance law that counts all absences rather than "unexcused" absences for purposed of "truancy".

It may seem by the district by district breakdown that the law has impacted Millard Public Schools the most, but it is important to note that the Nebraska Family Forum grew out of the Millard Parent Society and therefore the awareness within Millard Public Schools is longstanding.

Out of the 3000+ cases referred to the Douglas County Attorney last year only 400 came from MPS. For every story collected here it is reasonable to assume that they represent dozens more who are affected who have not written their thoughts in a public way.

The Facebook Effect

Nebraska Family Forum: What we Stand For

Mission:

It is the Mission of the Nebraska Family Forum (NFF) to promote education policies in our state that preserve and protect parental authority and the integrity of the family. In so doing, we will preserve the cooperative and respectful relationship between school authorities and parents, preserve a family-centered community, and provide a well-rounded education for our kids.

NFF Guiding Principles:

Family is Key: We believe the family is the single most important element to a child’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life, and parents are the foundation upon which family success rests. For this reason, it’s imperative that the state honor the authority of parents as they exercise their natural rights, obligations, and responsibilities to raise, manage, direct, and educate their children.

Freedom in Education is essential: We believe that flexibility in education, school choice, stimulating curriculum, quality teachers, and innovative education reforms are essential to a family centered education. We support policies that will lead to greater parental influence in education innovation, curriculum, and choice.

Family struggles are a healthy part of life: We believe that the fundamental right of a parent does not cease to exist simply because a parent may fail to be a model parent. Parents often struggle to meet the needs of their children, but this is not in itself sufficient cause for unwanted and unwarranted government intrusion into family life. We join with Father Steven Boes of Boys Town in "proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys, as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.” There is always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need.

Government Intrusion can be Harmful: We believe that the right of parents to raise their children without undue government interference is a fundamental liberty that has long been protected by the Constitution of the United States and is not void upon the enrollment of ones child in a public school. We warn that governments who seek to micro-manage the everyday choices of parents in pursuit prescribed outcomes, will do great harm to the integrity of the family and by extension, the well-being of children and society as a whole.

Mother… I think of all the lessons she has modeled for me throughout my life in topics from boys to academia to love in and of family to the meaning of true success… now I heed her lessons in balancing my life, work and passions. All the while, she is my teacher, one with the honored and sacred name of Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother.

The Simple Truths

Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. ~ Oscar Wilde

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ~ William Butler Yeats

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. ~ G. M. Trevelyan

Every educated person is a future enemy. ~ Martin Bormann

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. ~ Michel de Montaigne

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. ~ Mark Twain

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. ~ John W. Gardner

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding. ~ Ezra Pound

The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. ~ Robert M. Hutchins

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. ~ Albert Einstein

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. ~ Albert Einstein

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. ~ Abraham Lincoln

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. ~aya Angelou

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

I hated school. Even to this day, when I see a school bus it's just depressing to me. The poor little kids. ~ Dolly Parton

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters. ~George Herbert

Dad kept us out of school, but school comes and goes. Family is forever.

"The amount of freedom to which a person is entitled is strictly measured by the amount of freedom he is willing to allow his fellow man." ~ Verlan Andersen

"You complain of bad city government. It is ultimately the fault of the people themselves if it is bad... In no way can you bring about decency in your Government so quickly as by backing up the men (and women) who represent your interests, rewarding those who are faithful and punishing those who fail in their duty." ~ Theodore Roosevelt